Theological Truth: We all struggle to keep our minds on divine things, rather than human things.
I promised last Sunday that we would get back to the Gospel today. Can you see why? In last week’s Gospel, Peter confesses that “Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God,” and Jesus promises to build his Church on this rock. This Sunday, Peter’s the stumbling block. It reminds me of that line from Frank Sinatra, “You’re riding high in April, shot down in May.”Or in Peter’s case, just a few verses later. It’s not the first time we’ve seen Peter excel initially, only to sink like a stone moments later.
But rather than picking on Peter, let’s remember that he’s a stand-in for all of humanity. All of us, like Peter, are a mixed bag (of rocks?) – sometimes faithful followers, other times clueless rebels. One day we are open to God’s rule, and the next day we confidently instruct God on how to rule the universe. Like Peter, we all struggle to stay focused on divine things rather than human things. We may say the right thing, but do we do the right things?
A New Orleans city councilman, frustrated with the federal response a few months after Hurricane Katrina, offered this childhood memory in an attempt to be both grateful and motivational: “My grandma used to say, ‘I appreciate the way you tell me you love me all the time. That makes me feel real nice. But it would be even nicer if every now and then you would show me.’” Like Peter, we are called not only to say we love Jesus, but to show it. Or as we promise in the words of the Great Thanksgiving, “to show forth [God’s] praise not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up ourselves to [God’s] service.” (BCP, p. 101)
But how exactly do we give up ourselves? How do we change our ways of seeing, our pre-programmed ways of thinking, and our reptilian brain’s approach to surviving? Peter’s response shows us that it’s a matter of changing our perspective. Peter starts where we all start – seeing from his own point of view. From this perspective, he and has family and tribe and nation have the Messiah, which is a highly effective weapon in your arsenal to win the battle against Rome and supremely helpful in making all of your hopes and dreams come true. Peter has Jesus and he’s intent on using him as he sees fit. No wonder any talk about suffering or death – “losing” according to the ways of the world – are so threatening to Peter.
But eventually, another perspective, another way of seeing, takes hold. Jesus has Peter. Peter the stumbling block, rather than being in front of Jesus, ultimately gets behind him – where followers belong. Rather than being headstrong and using Jesus as he sees best, Peter learns to see from God’s point of view. He comes to trust that the way of the cross is the way to Life; that those who lose their life for the sake of God’s kingdom will find it. Peter offers himself to Jesus. Rather than Peter having Jesus on his side, the kingdom of God has Peter.
This appropriate perspective plays out in the mission of the Church. So often clergy and vestries obsess over “What is the Church’s mission?” But the Church doesn’t have a mission; God’s mission has the Church. This is more than semantics; it’s holy perspective. God is not our bodyguard or secret weapon here to impose our will. Rather, the Church’s job is to be “on call,” praying, listening, willing and available to answer our role in what God is up to in this world. God’s mission has us.
That sort of humble availability requires us, just like those early disciples, to continue listening to Jesus’ instructions about the way of the cross. By following Jesus – in ways large and small, day in and day out – through this paschal mystery of self-denial, suffering, death, and resurrection, we begin to see God’s perspective rather than human perspective. We begin to trust more and more that God’s “ways give more life than the ways of the world, and that following [God] is better than chasing after selfish goals.” (BCP, p. 829) We trust more, fear less, and offer ourselves as instruments of God’s way of bringing about the kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. I’ll give you an example.
Thomas Troeger tells the story[1] of being in seminary in the 1960’s when African American students “took over the school’s classrooms and administration building…The students were protesting institutional racism and demanding the hiring of more African American faculty. The president, Gene Bartlett, prayerfully considered the truth of their judgment and the righteousness of their cause and entered into negotiations with them in good faith. In the midst of the negotiations he periodically met with the other students and faculty in the basement of the school dormitory.” Notice the holy humility and self-denial of trying to see things from the divine perspective.
Troeger continues, “When someone asked why the state police were not summoned to throw the students out, he responded that these were our brothers and sisters in Christ; and the world may deal with conflict by the use of force, but it is not the way of the [cross]. When the confrontation was finally settled to the satisfaction of the African American students and the administration, someone suggested that there was no need to keep the agreement since it was reached under duress. But Gene Barlett responded simply: ‘We gave our word.’” Do you see the commitment to operating by Kingdom rules rather than human rules?
Troeger concludes, “Years later I had the privilege of reviewing these events with Gene Bartlett. By now the black church studies program that had resulted from the confrontation had made an invaluable contribution to the life of both black and white churches. As I listened to [him] speak, I realized how lonely it had been to stand for what he believed was the word of God in that situation. He had known then what Jeremiah knew: ‘Under the weight of your hand I sat alone.’ (15:17) And … he realized that God had been with him to ‘save’ and ‘deliver.’ (15:20) Can we trust that this way of the cross leads to resurrection life? As followers of Christ, just like Peter and Gene Bartlett, we wake up each day with the possibility of seeing and acting through either the human perspective or the divine perspective. The way of the cross is “a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.” (1 Corinthians 1:23) Its message is contrary to the ways of the world. But when we give our lives to it, we realize that this way of loving, living, and giving is the power of God to save us all. It is how we avoid being “overcome by evil, and instead, overcome evil with good.” We become rocks rather than stumbling blocks.
— Fr. AJ Heine, Rector, Trinity Episcopal Church of Staunton
Fourteenth Sunday After Pentecost, September 3, 2023
Readings: Jeremiah 15:15-21, Psalm 26:1-8, Romans 12:9-21, Matthew 16:21-28
[1] New Proclamation Series A, 1999, p. 199
